I’m Leila Ben Ali-Kraiem, Tunisian, Chief Engineer in Statistics and Researcher in Demography. I have 32 years of national and international accumulated experiences in statistics, gender, management and leadership, project management, technical assistance, building capacities, monitoring planning and design and evaluation of development projects and policies (Gender Statistic; surveys and studies; Economic and Social Project’s, Health, Education, Women, Family, Childhood, Youth, Reproductive Health, Habitat, Disability, Employment, Migration Statistic). I have also a previous experience on partnership development with a various organizations such as WB, ESCWA, CIDA, UNDP, UNECA, AfDB, EU, and UNSD.

I worked for 18 years in Tunisia as Chief Engineer in statistics at the National at the National Institute of Statistics (1989-1994), Head of planning, programmes and databases Division (1994-2001) and Director of planning, studies and evaluation, (2001-2005) in the Ministry of Woman and Family Affairs.

I worked also as Lecturer in Statistics and Demography in the Social Science & Arts Faculty, University of Sfax (2006-2007). I served as Part time Lecturer of Demography and Statistics (2003-2005), in parallel to my mission as Director in the Ministry of Woman, Family, Childhood and Elderly Affairs.

I am the first woman engineer in statistics and demographer in Tunisia. I am pioneer in gender statistics, I set up for the first time the Strategy of the Development of Gender Statistics and I developed and conducted the first Time Use Survey (TUS) in Tunisia.

I was recruited by the African Union Commission (AUC) as a Head of Gender Policy and Development at the Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD) in 2007. In September 2014, I was nominated as Ag. Director of WGDD (2014-2015). I have accumulated extensive experience and achievement by the elaboration and management of Fund for African Women, establishment of the academic African Union Course on Gender Responsive Economic Policy Making in Africa, development of the AU Gender Policy, implementation of the AU 2015 Year of Women towards the Agenda 2063 and development of the Gender Scorecard and participating in recruitment panels.

In July 2016, I was appointed as Head of Statistics Division in the Economic Affairs Department (EAD) for the establishment and operationalization of the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC) based in Tunis, Tunisia; leading the implementation of SHaS2 and statistics development in Africa; resources mobilization for statistics development (SIDA ,Statistics Sweden, EU, World Bank).

In March 2021, I was appointed as Ag. Director of the African Migration Observatory in Rabat, Morocco responsible for its establishment; leading the recruitment process of the staff; launching its activities related to the improvement of migration statistics in Africa; resources mobilization for statistics migration development.